ABSTRACT
The focus of this chapter is on the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic
aspects of inhalation drugs for topical delivery. For the last 30 years, pulmonary
drug delivery has been successfully employed for topical therapy of pulmonary
diseases, with the goal of achieving pronounced pulmonary effect while reducing
systemic side effects. The degree of pulmonary targeting is determined by a
number of pharmacokinetic (PK) and pharmacodynamic (PD) factors. This
chapter will discuss these relationships and will review the pharmacokinetic and
pharmacodynamic tools suitable for characterizing inhalation drugs.
